Themed to look like a stealth fighter jet, the new wing coaster at the Chicago-area amusement park will feature trains with seats that straddle the track, giving riders the sensation of having nothing above or below them.

After ascending a 120-foot-tall lift hill, X-Flight will immediately descend at 55 mph into a half loop called a dive drop before making a ground-hugging pass through an airplane hangar.

Traveling over a 3,000-foot-long track, X-Flight completes a series of inversions, including a pair of weightless zero-g rolls, an inline twist and an Immelmann loop. The ride will include water jets and fog special effects.

The three-minute ride concludes with a near-miss pass through a keyhole slot in an air traffic control tower followed by a series of sharp turns that return riders to the station.

Scheduled to open May 16, X-Flight will be the second coaster of its kind in the United States following the March debut of the $20 million Wild Eagle at Dollywood in Tennessee. Great America season passholders will get a preview of X-Flight on May 12 and 13.

The world's first Bolliger & Mabillard Wing Rider coaster, Gardaland's Raptor, opened at the Italian park in 2011. A fourth B&M Wing Rider, Swarm at England's Thorpe Park, was unveiled in March.

Riders on Dollywood's Wild Eagle coaster will sit on either side of the track in a winged formation on trains themed as bald eagles in flight. The $20-million coaster is scheduled to debut at the Tennessee theme park in March 2012.

It already seems like 2012 is shaping up as a good year for ride enthusiasts as the major industry players have plans to roll out big projects while some theme parks have announced attractions but kept details secret. Here are my Top 12 for 2012. --Brady MacDonald

Let's take a closer look at the new attractions planned for U.S. theme parks in 2013, including some major projects by big industry players and several significant additions by smaller parks. Here are our top 13 for 2013: